


Check Me Out

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [355]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: College!AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 18:09:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8588578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: anon requested (from another tumblr post doing the rounds):  "I’m always pulling books you reserved so I’ve started leaving little notes in them for you" with Brains and Brawn please!





	

The best and the worst part of volunteering at the university library was seeing books going out that he’d quite like to read himself.  Virgil only did a few hours a week, and mostly he was charged with sorting returns or fetching and stacking reservations and requests.  It was easy, relaxing work–he just shoved his headphones in his ears and churned through it–but he’d taken to keeping a notebook in his back pocket to jot down cool looking titles.

Someone was slowly working their way through the history of engineering; you could spot when a course reading had come due, but this wasn’t that.  This was more like someone had a question they weren’t sure how to ask, and were searching until they found their answer.  There was a system here, one that Virgil was getting the sense of as more titles passed through his hands, to be stacked into crates and sent up to reservation collection.

“Ooh,” Virgil murmured to himself as he checked the cover with the details on the request slip.  “This looks interesting.”

Despite his quota and the constantly ticking clock, Virgil flicked quickly through the book – a history of engineering innovations of Mesopotamia.

Ten minutes later, he forced himself to put it down.  Pulling out his notepad, he tore off a sheet – “tell me if it’s any good?”  The book went into the crate, and Virgil went on with his tasks.

The next week, Virgil started his shift with the returns crate.

He blinked at the familiar cover on the top of the pile.  “Hello, welcome back,” he muttered.

A piece of paper fluttered out from between the leaves as he plucked it out of the crate.  “Very interesting, though scant on technical details of the water engines” was written under his question in a square, blocky hand.

Virgil grinned, crumpling the piece of paper slightly in his fist.

The same handwriting was on the first request slip on Virgil’s pile.  This turned out to be a book on the history of electrical innovation.  Virgil fished the note out of his pocket and smoothed out the creases.  “No water in here, I hope,” he scribbled, tucking it in behind the flyleaf.

The following week, he was early to his shift.  He pawed through the returns crate until he found what he was looking for.  “Do undersea cables count in terms of water?  Recommended.”

Virgil put the book aside to check out when his shift ended.

The note passed back and forward for weeks, as outside the weather turned cold and the library grew busier, crowded with the studious and those who just wanted to hide in the warm.

Virgil pushed through the patrons to the staff area, barely waiting to peel off his coat before he dived at the return pile.  The note was dog-eared now, a tiny coffee stain on one corner.  The handwriting had shrunk to fit the remaining gaps, but neither seemed eager to start a new page.  Virgil turned it over, looking for the new addition.

“I usually collect my books around 6pm on a Friday,” was written in a corner, a tiny, almost hopeful question mark half-falling off the edge of the page.

At the end of his shift, Virgil left the library with the note still in his pocket.

It had been a game, light and teasing, intellectually stimulating yet still _fun_ , swapping the note back and forward, quick quips and one-word book reviews in every exchange.

Virgil didn’t have a mental picture of the other reader – he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to put a face to the handwriting.

Virgil stayed in his apartment until 5.45pm, staring at the clock.  As it ticked the quarter, Virgil took a deep breath.  “Screw it.”  He ran the entire way across campus.  The clock in the foyer was chiming the hour as Virgil strode past the front desk, heading up the stairs for the reserve collection.

This close to closing on a Friday, the upper floors were quieter than they were during his usual shift.  There was one man, his back to the rest of the library as he swiped his library card through the automatic reader.

Virgil recognized the spines on the stack of books next to him.  Heart pounding, Virgil stepped up to the counter.  He tapped the top-most book.  “You’ll have to tell me if it’s any good.”  Virgil’s smile froze as the most intelligent eyes he had ever seen blinked up at him through blue-rimmed glasses.

“Well,” the stranger stuttered.  “I’ll have to read them first.  Hopefully they will be full of interesting details.”

He smiled, and Virgil felt his jaw drop.  “Hi. I’m Virgil,” he managed to say.  He stuck his hand out.

“Everyone calls me Brains.”  His grip was firm and steady.  

Virgil took a chance.  “Wanna go get a coffee?”

Brains pushed his glasses up with one finger, an automatic movement.  There was a high, faint blush on his cheeks.  “I did say I would explain the water wheel to you,” he agreed.  Scooping up his books, they wandered together out of the library.


End file.
